Vanilla and Ashtrays
by Wufei Winner Quatre K
Summary: Cloud and Tifa discuss old times. Hints of Slash.


**Title:** Vanilla and Ashtrays

**Author:** Wufei_W

**Rated:** PG-13ish

**Characters:** Cloud, Tifa, and Reno

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or make any profit from this fic; all rights belong to Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura.

**Warnings:** None that I can think of.

**Spoilers:** None

**Word Count:** 1,363

**Summary:** Cloud and Tifa discuss old times.

**Author's Note:** Written for Sterling. I hope that this is what you kind of had in mind and that you enjoy this! Many thanks go to my betas, RWQ and Poala, without them I would have filled this to the brim with run-on sentences. ^-^

~*~*~

Cloud liked how the thin texture of the chocolate syrup swirled, making odd patterns in the vanilla ice-cream as he stirred his spoon into his dessert; he thought one looked like a duck. Interesting.

"So I told him that if he wanted his precious romance novel back, then he better keep his nasty cigarette-butts out of the drinking glasses from now on."

"Mmmhmm," Cloud nodded to show that he was still paying attention to Tifa's anecdote of the week. Even though he had lost the point of the conversation long ago, he knew better than to interrupt and tell her of this fact when she was in the middle of one of her tangents. After all, the name 'Lockhart' was feared in Edge City for a damn good reason.

It was Tuesday in Edge, and the two former members of AVALANCHE were enjoying their weekly rendezvous at the café that was located not far from Tifa's bar. Shortly after the mayhem caused by the three clones bent on world annihilation, he and Tifa have been slowly building a relationship that wasn't based on the adrenaline of battle or the half remembered childhood promises. They both finally sat down and decided to start anew, and so began a weekly meeting at the café. Some liked to call it dating, but Cloud wasn't ready to start throwing labels around quite yet.

The brunette continued on, gesturing with her own spoon as she got more agitated from her ranting, "You know how hard it is to get the smell out of them, and Denzel keeps complaining that his milk tastes spoiled. I'm going to kill Cid if I have to hear that one more time because he can't take the time to find a goddamn ashtray!"

Cloud was shocked out of his drowsy fascination of random duck-swirls when he unexpectedly felt a cold substance slap him in the face. Looking up he saw Tifa in her seat across from him, frozen in motion, her spoon pointing his way, eyes wide and face flushed in mortification. Raising an eyebrow in question he continued stirring, "Is that your way of telling me to start paying attention?"

That seemed to snap Tifa out of her own shock. "Oh my god, I'm sorry!" Scrambled out of her chair to find something to clean the mess that covered Cloud's face and shirt. The blond tried to tell her that it wasn't a big deal and that he was capable of cleaning himself, when he was cut off by a wad of paper napkins shoved in his face and right into his mouth, as it happened to be open at that very moment. Distantly in the background, the sound of the door chime could be heard as he tried to fend off the brunette's overzealous attempts to clean the mess off of him.

"Well, well, well. They always say it's the quiet ones that are the kinkiest but food-play, gagging, and exhibition all at once? I never thought that the two of you had it in you."

Cloud and Tifa jumped apart, startled by the familiar drawl and growled simultaneously. "You again?"

Reno hopped onto their table with his ever present smirk in place and eyed the two up and down salaciously. "Gotta track you down somehow since neither one of you will return my phone calls. Didn't you get my messages?" The redhead pouted.

Tifa rolled her eyes, "I wouldn't go so far as to call those things 'messages', more like excerpts from a badly written porno."

Cloud grumbled in agreement. This was another weekly occurrence of theirs; nine out of ten times they would be halfway through their 'date' when out of nowhere the redheaded Turk would appear and harass the two with lewd comments and bad pickup lines until one of them would threaten him with bodily harm. The blond was starting to think that instead taking it as rejection like any sane person would, the Turk took the threats as some sort of sick encouragement. That didn't even count the constant calls that both he and Tifa received on a daily basis. It would have been slightly alarming if it was happening to anyone else but them, as it was they just found it annoying. Cloud often wondered how Reno even had the time to stalk them and also do Rufus's bidding. Weren't they trying to retake over the world or something?

Reno leaned towards Tifa, completely ignoring the boundaries of personal space. "So I was thinking that the two of us could go back to my place and discuss on how our two '_factions_' can unite and become one," he murmured suggestively.

"For the last time, so not interested," Tifa said, looking exasperated by the whole ordeal and shoved the redhead away.

The grin on his face just got bigger, if that was even possible, as Reno clutched the edge of the table to keep himself from falling off. "If it's about soldier-boy here, we can easily make it a group activity instead," he said, wiggling his eyebrows mischievously in Cloud's direction.

"Not a chance," Cloud growled, bearing his teeth at the redhead. He was very tempted to flip the table over and onto the floor, taking the Turk perched on top along with it. It wouldn't be very mature of him he knew, and Tifa wouldn't approve of him doing something like that in public, but it would be well worth the satisfaction to see the smirk wiped off that smug face.

Reno just waved him off, completely ignoring the very real danger he was in of becoming good friends with the café's floorboards. "Don't worry, I already have it all covered; I'll bring the lube, Lovely-Lockhart here can bring the handcuffs, and you can breakout that hot little blue number of yours," he said, leering, even having the audacity to run his finger down the blond's neck to wipe off the remainder of the spilt dessert found there.

Cloud could feel his left eye start to twitch as he clenched his fists at his sides, restraining himself from strangling the bastard. Yes, it would totally be worth it.

With a roll of her eyes, Tifa snatched Cloud's wrist and made for the door; the blond barely remembered to toss a few Gil onto the front counter in payment as they passed by on their way out of the building, both ignoring the catcalls coming from the Turk still sprawled on top of their table. Once outside and a good distance away from the cursed café and leaving the bane of his existence along with it, Cloud felt it was safe to let out a relieved breath. Never again would he step foot out of the house without his sword; the next time he came across the redheaded Turk, he would give him something to _really_ remember him by. Why, he even might cast a few Fire spells right up his bomb-loving as--

"Well, that was a bust."

Hearing the disappointment in the sigh that came from the brunette, Cloud pulled himself out from his daydreams and turned to stare at Tifa walking instep at his side, hand still clasped tightly in his own. "What else do you have in mind?" he asked, trying to think up ways to salvage the rest of their day out and came up with nothing.

Tapping a finger to her chin in thought, Tifa suddenly stopped walking and turned to the blond. "I always did wonder you know, " she said, looking Cloud up and down with a decidedly evil glint in her eye.

"Wonder…what exactly?" Cloud asked, feeling his nervousness increase by the minute as she just kept staring up at him. He jumped, startled, when Tifa wrapped her arms round his neck and grinned.

"_Do_ you still have that dress of yours?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes up at him and playfully tugged on one of his spikes.

Cloud cursed his pale skin as he felt his face heat up and knew he was blushing like mad all over in embarrassed and guilt, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, because he _did_.

~Fin~


End file.
